Supersessionism

Supersessionism is the traditional Christian belief that Christians have replaced Israel as God's Chosen people. In this view, the Jews are no longer considered to be God's Chosen people, since they reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah and son of God.

Traditionally, all Christian sects and denominations have held this belief. Since The Enlightenment a growing minority of Christians have questioned this doctrine. In the 20th century the Roman Catholic Church issued a number of theological position papers which appear to reject this concept outright, and affirm that the Torah is a valid path for Jews to achieve salvation, and that their covenant with God is still valid, and that the Jews of modern times are a direct unbroken continuation of the ancient Children of Israel. This view is not unanimous, and other leaders in the Catholic Church have since issued other official proclamations which reject this view, and affirm that worship of Jesus Christ is the only way for a human being to achieve salvation.

Several liberal Protestant Christian groups have formally renounced supersessionism, and affirm that Jews, and perhaps other non-Christians, have a valid way to find God within their own faith. The majority of Christian groups (there are thousands) still hold supersessionism to be valid.

External Links:

The Jewish Christian Relations center for religious dialogue (http://www.jcrelations.net/frmain.htm)

The Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies (http://www.icjs.org/home.html)